


faustian teddy bear

by summerdayghost



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Ambiguous Supernatural Elements, Canonical Character Death, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Multi, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 04:17:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21048167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerdayghost/pseuds/summerdayghost
Summary: Daddy was good alright. He was the best father Eddie could have hoped for. His only flaw was that the devil lived behind his eyes.





	faustian teddy bear

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for fail_fandomanon’s 100 words of cacodemonomania. This is slightly longer than 100 words.
> 
> This is right on the borderline between what I would rate Teen and Mature. I’m going with Teen for now, but may change my mind.

In Eddie’s favorite baby picture he was dressed up like a teddy bear. Get it? Because he was a little Eddie Bear? When he held the picture in his hand he could practically feel how fluffy that costume was. It reminded him of his favorite pajamas, the ones with the fuzzy pants.

The photo was taken on his first Halloween. Daddy had taken the initiative of taking him out trick or treating despite him being a bit too brand new to really appreciate it. A bit too brand new to really appreciate anything really. His eyes weren’t capable of seeing in full color yet. Still, daddy persisted. Mommy had joked on more than one Halloween when they came home too late that maybe daddy only had him for the dubious honor of taking him trick or treating.

His eyes were open, but he was clearly moments away from falling asleep, an itty bitty thing safe and warm in daddy’s arms. Daddy’s smile was not just a photograph smile. He might have even been giddy. Eddie sure felt giddy when he looked at this. If a moment of greater purity was ever captured on film Eddie would have liked to see it. But even in that photo the devil was visible in daddy’s eyes.

***

Eddie had a lot of favorite things.

He had a favorite stuffed animal, a black teddy bear daddy gave him as a reward for being a good boy and not a little brat. Eddie called him Tadzio. He wouldn’t have if he had the choice. Tadzio was a silly name. Mommy agreed. But daddy’s original choice for a name was Władysław. Eddie couldn’t pronounce that so Tadzio it was. Tadzio was hard earned.

He had a favorite actual animal, Gertrude the alley cat. She roamed all around town. Every time he saw her she looked different. Sometimes she was calico. Sometimes she was grey and fluffy. Always she seemed satisfied. He never tried to pet her because that wouldn’t make mommy happy, but he always appreciated her.

He had a favorite parent, daddy. According to mommy and daddy’s friends he had been daddy’s little boy since he was a newborn. He used to scream until daddy held him. Much to mommy’s jealousy which was why their friends only told him about this when she wasn’t home.

Don’t get Eddie wrong, he also loved mommy. She was beautiful and wonderful and Eddie had more love for her than his little body should have been capable of containing. Daddy still edged her out.

There was a goodness about daddy. It was a goodness mommy simply didn’t have. He laughed more than she did, and he had a more level head about things. Daddy would let him eat an extra slice of cake and run around outside with the other boys when both ideas probably would have made mommy faint. One way he tended to think of it was that daddy was the sort to ruffle his hair while mommy was the sort to smooth it out and fuss over it.

Daddy was good alright. He was the best father Eddie could have hoped for. His only flaw was that the devil lived behind his eyes. The devil had been there as long as he could remember. He didn’t know what the devil wanted with daddy. There was no way to ask. Not without putting himself at risk. All Eddie could do was sit back and watch the devil watch him.

Eddie knew it was a devil too. He could tell by the way they would light up with mischief. That light burned like hellfire. The River Styx ran through daddy’s tears. Most importantly they were rotted. Not literally. No flies buzzed around daddy’s eyes. But Eddie could sense the rot.

More than once the possibility that there was no devil, the the only thing living behind daddy’s eyes was Frank Kaspbrak, had crossed his mind. He found the idea distressing for reasons he could not name. It was much easier to deal with if it was the devil. Daddy was a good man. His favorite good man, even. The devil just made him something feral sometimes.

***

“I worry about you Eds,” daddy’s fingertips slid down his face.

Eddie shivered at the name as much as the contact, “You do?”

He nodded, “I worry a lot.”

The devil suggested other, more exciting things within those words. The meaning of word exciting was relative. It wasn’t exciting to Eddie, but it was exciting to the devil.

***

As much as daddy was a good father, Eddie wasn’t always a good son. Sometimes he was a little brat. Daddy would tell him as much as Eddie struggled beneath him. Only little brats threw a fit and made things difficult for their daddies.

Eddie always felt bad about his behavior afterwards. Guilt would weigh down his stomach keeping him awake. Daddy deserved better than a son who tried to smack and bite him. Daddy deserved a son that cared about his happiness. Whenever he thought about this he clutched Tadzio tight to his chest. He didn’t want Tadzio confiscated even if he knew he didn’t quite deserve him at the moment.

Sometimes all of this was enough to make him change for next time, but usually the nights where the devil was at his most lively, rowdy even, were just too terrifying.

***

“Aren’t you gonna give daddy a kiss?” he grabbed him by the wrist.

The devil practically shined.

***

About a week after daddy’s funeral Eddie found himself dry heaving over the toilet. He had caught his eye in mirror except it wasn’t his eye. It was daddy’s eye, devil behind it and all. In a perfect world daddy would be alive and the devil would be dead, but here the devil had made a new home in Eddie.

Maybe Eddie always had his father’s eyes.

***

Mommy must have noticed the devil before Eddie did. She had been calling him “Frank” by mistake and it must have been because of the eyes. Mommy called him Frank when she was watching tv, when she fed him dinner, when she tucked him in at night, when she— Eddie didn’t want to continue that list. Just know it happened a lot.

***

Angels watched over people and protected them. Eddie wanted so badly to believe that was the situation with the devil living behind his eyes. Daddy had left a piece of himself to keep Eddie safe. The devil had been an angel once after all. Ultimately he couldn’t make himself buy it.

The eyes made Eddie feel wicked. Worse, they made him feel rotten.

***

Eddie explained all of this and more to Mr. Keene with a shaky voice in and out of sobs over ice cream. Chocolate ice cream to be exact. His favorite. Mr. Keene almost got him coffee flavored but Eddie hadn’t tried that before and wasn’t in the mood for experimentation. He craved familiarity. Mr. Keene didn’t have to do that for Eddie. Hell, Eddie didn’t even ask him to do that, he was just that nice.

All his life Eddie had been told that if something was bothering him he should tell a trusted adult. He felt this would upset mommy and that was the last thing she needed so he went to the next best thing. Better even, in some ways. Plus, after daddy died Mr. Keene told Eddie that if he missed daddy too much to handle and wanted to talk about it or needed him for any other reason he’d be there for him. Eddie was taking him up on that, and Mr. Keene was good on his word. He listened the whole time.

Mr. Keene rubbed his back slowing his breathing down, “You know what I think?”

He leaned into the touch, “What?”

“I think,” he pressed down harder, “he infected you.”

Instinct told him Mr. Keene was smiling. Eddie wouldn’t turn around. If the devil lived behind daddy’s, well, now Eddie's eyes, he also lived behind Mr. Keene’s smile. That wasn’t what Eddie wanted at the moment. He wanted to stare straight ahead and listen because devil or not he knew Mr. Keene was right.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
